Ski Midtistua to Saltfjellstua

6 km, 20m Ascent, 120m Descent.

It was my turn to do the group log entry today - here are my ramblings:

This morning Andy awoke to find Philip missing. Philip was then caught by Fiona & Kathy returning in boots, top & underpants with sleeping bag from the other hut, his haven from Andy's snoring!

Today's short ski, Midtistua to Saltfjellstua , 6km due south, perfect sunshine, perfect visibility, perfect snow, perfect even with nobody falling over if you exclude Philip unparking the pulk at Midti and Mick parking it at Saltfjell. Not quite so perfect though or the Fjellrype (Ptarmigan) that we found the remains of en-route. There were a few feathers, a few blood stains and some wing markings in the snow where it had attempted to get away but no other marks in the snow. The conclusion being that a bird of prey had made the kill there and flown off with the carcass.

Like most huts the accommodation at Saltfjell is split across two huts. A simple failsafe should one hut be destroyed. We'd met two Germans en-route to Midti that had been staying at Saltfjell, therefore the smaller hut was "pre-warmed". Philip chose to use this hut and choosing to do a bit of laundry too, it was soon more like a sauna than a hut. The rest of us were in the larger hut which started off with a room temperature of -7c but by teatime we'd got it up to a reasonable 10c and rising. There were a couple of us that chose to visit Philip during this warming up process!!

Of note in this "pre-warmed" hut was that only one German was logged in and therefore paid for the accommodation. It really leaves a bad taste when you come across such abuse of the excellent hut system provided by the DNT (Den Norske Turistforening - the Norwegian Trekking Association).

Photo courtesy of Philip - we all carry rucsacs and we have two pulks between us which we take turns in pulling. This year we experimented with having a lead skier attached to the pulk puller. The photo doesn't do justice to the system as it's on a downhill stretch where not a lot of assistance is required, in fact looking at the rope, not a lot of assistance is being given, but overall it proved a successful experiment that certainly helped in some of the difficult conditions later in the trip.